Fredid Román, who ran an online outlet focused on state-level politics, gunned down in his car in state capital
A local journalist who ran an online news program has been shot to death in southern Mexico, making him the 15th media worker killed so far this year nationwide.
Prosecutors in the southern state of Guerrero said on Monday that Fredid Román was gunned down in the state capital, Chilpancingo.
Continue reading...India previously blamed a ‘technical malfunction’ for accidental firing of unarmed missile in March
The Indian air force has said it has sacked three officers for accidentally firing a missile into Pakistan in March.
“A court of inquiry, set up to establish the facts of the case, including fixing responsibility for the incident, found that deviation from the standard operating procedures by three officers led to the accidental firing of the missile,” the air force said.
Continue reading...Perenco sues Peru government for repeal of law that offers recognition to proposed Napo-Tigre reserve
Isolated Peruvian tribes face a threat to their existence from a push to scrap a planned Indigenous reserve led by an Anglo-French oil company, Indigenous groups say.
The firm, Perenco, whose slogan is “Oil remains an adventure”, filed an injunction in May for the repeal of a law offering preliminary government recognition to a proposed Napo-Tigre reserve. The first hearing is scheduled on 7 September.
Continue reading...This live blog has now closed, please visit here for our latest coverage
Poland’s president Andrzej Duda has arrived in Kyiv for talks with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
The duo will engage in talks on the current wartime situation in Ukraine, economic and humanitarian support and bilateral cooperation, according to Duda’s official Twitter channel.
The visit will include a meeting with President (Volodymyr) Zelenskiy and talks on military support and defence of Ukraine in the economic, humanitarian and political sense,” Pawel Szrot told reporters.
The presidents will discuss the political support Poland could offer to convince other countries to keep helping Ukraine.
Continue reading...Lawyers for Jagtar Singh Johal say he was given electric shocks after unlawful arrest in Punjab in 2017
A British Sikh campaigner is facing a possible death sentence after the UK intelligence services passed on information about him to the Indian authorities, according to a high court complaint.
Lawyers for Jagtar Singh Johal from Dumbarton, Scotland, say he was tortured, including being given electric shocks, after his unlawful arrest in the Punjab in 2017 where he had travelled for his wedding.
Continue reading...Discontent grows over Finland’s visa policy as country becomes key transit route for Russian travellers
Porsches, Bentleys and other luxury cars with Russian licence plates are filling the parking garage at Helsinki airport as Finland becomes an important transit country for Russian tourists flying to Europe.
The EU shut its airspace to Russian planes after Moscow invaded Ukraine, forcing anyone who wants to travel to Europe to drive across the border or take a circuitous route using non-western airlines.
Continue reading...Federal court upholds conviction and 12-year sentence linked to fraud, saying appeal ‘devoid of any merits’
Malaysia’s former prime minister Najib Razak has been ordered to begin a 12-year prison sentence after he lost his final appeal against a conviction linked to the multibillion-dollar 1MDB scandal, one of the world’s biggest financial frauds.
A five-member federal court panel said it unanimously found that Najib’s appeal was “devoid of any merits”, seemingly sealing the stunning downfall of the 69-year-old, who has become Malaysia’s first former PM to be jailed.
Continue reading...New viral infection detected in dozens of children in Kerala, and now also in Tamil Nadu and Odisha
An outbreak of a new viral infection referred to as tomato flu that was first detected in children in the southern Indian state of Kerala in May has spread to two other states.
According to an article in the Lancet Respiratory Medicine, 82 children aged under five had been diagnosed with the virus in Kerala as of 26 July.
Continue reading...Democracy activist and Apple Daily founder will stand trial without jury and could face up to life in prison
The founder of Apple Daily, Jimmy Lai, will stand trial without a jury in Hong Kong, after he told a court he would plead not guilty to national security charges.
On Monday, prosecutors told a case management hearing that Lai would challenge the accusations but six fellow executives and manager from the now-defunct Apple Daily or its parent company, Next Digital, intended to plead guilty.
Continue reading...Alert from US embassy comes a day before Ukraine is set to mark 31 years since it became an independent state
The US state department has issued a security alert warning that Russia is “stepping up” efforts to launch strikes against Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure and government facilities in the coming days.
The warning, issued on Tuesday, is the first specific security alert issued by the US embassy in Kyiv in recent months. It does not say what places it believes Russia plans to target, but advised US citizens to leave Ukraine if safe to do so.
Continue reading...In letter announcing defection, state senator Kevin Priola cites political and environmental threat from his erstwhile party
Announcing his switch to the Democrats, a Colorado state senator said Republican attacks on democracy were not the only “existential threat” posed by his former party.
“I have become increasingly worried about our planet and the climate crisis we are facing,” Kevin Priola said, in a letter posted to social media on Monday.
Continue reading...Investigation finds the books did not ‘properly reflect the sunny image of China’s children’
Chinese authorities have punished 27 people over the publication of a maths textbook that went viral over its “tragically ugly” illustrations.
A months-long investigation by a ministry of education working group found the books were “not beautiful”, and some illustrations were “quite ugly” and did not “properly reflect the sunny image of China’s children”.
Continue reading...Police forces in Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Vietnam have launched major operations to rescue their citizens and shut down trafficking syndicates
Hundreds of Taiwanese are among unknown numbers of victims being held captive and forced to work in telecom scam networks by human trafficking operations in south-east Asia, authorities have said.
Police forces in Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Vietnam have launched major operations to rescue their citizens and shut down the trafficking syndicates.
Continue reading...Pedro I declared independence from Portugal in 1822, and relic is now at the centre of politically charged election year celebrations
Nearly two centuries after it was cut from his corpse and preserved in formaldehyde, the heart of Emperor Pedro I, who declared Brazil’s independence from Portugal, has returned for politically charged commemorations of the South American country’s 200th birthday.
Dom Pedro, a beloved figure in both Brazilian and Portuguese history, has been divided between the two countries in death – his heart enshrined in a church in Porto, Portugal, and the rest of his remains in an independence monument in São Paulo, Brazil.
Continue reading...Ex-president says he will clamp down on illegal miners and loggers after murders of Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira
The leading candidate to become Brazil’s next president has vowed to launch a major crackdown on the illegal miners and loggers laying waste to the Amazon in the wake of the “barbaric” murders of the Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira and the British journalist Dom Phillips.
Speaking to foreign journalists in São Paulo, former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva paid tribute to the two men, who were gunned down in June while documenting the historic assault on Indigenous lands that has unfolded under Brazil’s current leader, Jair Bolsonaro.
Continue reading...Editor of state-owned RT network Margarita Simonyan appears to contradict Kremlin position in post about Darya Dugina killing
The influential head of Russia’s RT news network has hinted at Russia’s role in the poisoning of the former spy Sergei Skripal, in a remarkable post that contradicts the Kremlin’s official position on the incident.
In a post on her Telegram channel on Monday, Margarita Simonyan appeared to acknowledge Russia’s part in the Skripal poisoning when she wrote that Russian “professionals who want to admire spires” should travel to Estonia to go after the alleged killer of Darya Dugina, the daughter of an ultra-nationalist Russian ideologue who was killed in a car bomb on Saturday night.
Continue reading...Footage of Marin dancing and drinking with friends has brought 36-year-old leader’s judgment into question
Finland’s prime minister, Sanna Marin, has tested negative in a drugs test she took after a leaked video last week showed her dancing exuberantly and drinking at a party at which unsubstantiated reports claimed drugs may have been circulating.
The test was taken on 19 August and found no narcotics, the government said in a statement on Monday. It provided no details of what kind of test was used or what it screened for, but it said the prime minister would pay for it herself.
Continue reading...Expert, 81, who has led National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984, clashed with Trump over Covid response
Top US infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci plans to step down from his post in December to “pursue the next chapter” of his career, he announced in a statement on Monday.
Fauci, 81, has led the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (Niaid) since 1984. He has advised seven presidents, as far back as Ronald Reagan, on emerging infectious disease outbreaks that have plagued the nation, testifying before Congress and the World Health Organization on the HIV/Aids epidemic to Ebola to, most recently, the coronavirus pandemic.
Continue reading...Raila Odinga submits case to supreme court in move that could heighten the country’s political dispute
Kenya’s longtime opposition leader, Raila Odinga, has filed a case with the country’s supreme court to challenge the results of the 9 August presidential election in which his opponent, William Ruto, was declared the winner with 50.49% of the vote.
Ruto, who has served as deputy president since 2013, was named president-elect amid protests from four of the seven electoral commissioners, who renounced the results, calling them “opaque”. They claimed that the chair of the electoral commission, Wafula Chebukati, had hijacked the process leading up to the announcement and declared the results unilaterally.
Continue reading...FSB claims Ukraine’s special services carried out car bomb attack on daughter of ultra-nationalist
Russia has accused Ukraine’s intelligence services of carrying out the murder of Darya Dugina, the daughter of an ultra-nationalist Russian ideologue, raising fears of a violent retaliation.
Dugina was killed on Saturday evening when a bomb blew up the Toyota Land Cruiser she was driving, Russian investigators said.
Continue reading...